Chicago online parking marketplace ParkWhiz announced Monday that it closed a $10 million funding round led by growth-stage Chicago investor Jump Capital, escalating a battle with Chicago rival SpotHero for customers and Windy City investment dollars.

The Series B growth round for ParkWhiz allows the startup to triple its employees from 25 to 75 over the next two years and capitalize on opportunities presented by the rollout of connected car technologies that include Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the company’s founders announced.

"Our investors want us to grow our network," said ParkWhiz CEO Aashish Dalal. That means expanding the geographical footprint of cooperating parking lot owners, as well as building out engineering for the company, he said. "We will be scaling up operations in our sales, marketing and technology functions to support the goal."

Both ParkWhiz and SpotHero pursue a business strategy that connects parking garage owners and users so drivers can reserve a spot online in advance.

In 2012, ParkWhiz raised $2 million in a Series A proof-of-concept round that brought together funders from Hyde Park Venture Partners, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, former Navteq CTO Amreesh Modi, former Technology Crossover Ventures partner Henry Feinberg and Hyde Park Angels. Those funders also participated in the Series B round announced Monday.

Meanwhile, SpotHero continues to compete fiercely for market share and funding. The company last month announced $4.5 million of Series A money in a second round of venture funding that brought together investors from Lightbank, Prtizker Group Venture Capital, Chicago Ventures, 1871 CEO Howard Tullman's G2T3V and others. In 2012, SpotHero raised $2.5 million within a week of the ParkWhiz funding.

ParkWhiz has operations in 125 cities in what the International Parking Institutes says is a $30 billion parking market in the U.S. It competes head-to head with SpotHero for parking spots in Chicago, New York, Washington DC and other markets.